THE HISTORY OF THE HAT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21537, 8 January 1932, Page 11

THE HISTORY OF THE HAT

The hat, to most of us, is merely an ordinary commonplace item of the wardrobe. But in history—and the hat has been worn for the last 6000 years—there are many interesting facts connected with it. Hats were certainly made 6000 years ago, for Egyptian art portrays the Pharaohs surmounted by imposing headgear/ and there are records of the preparation of material for hats. In Assyrian bass-relief, rulers are shown wearing upon their heads tower-like structures, intended to overawe their enemies. Two thousand jrears ago travellers, limiters, and shepherds in Greece wore broad, lowcrowned hats, similar to modern widebrimmed slouch hats. The Babylonians and the Assyrians knew of felt, and the Greeks are said to have used it in their hats. For several centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire, however, the art of felting fur was apparently lost in Western Europe, although Chaucer mentions fur-felt hats, and beaver hats appear to have been made in Flanders in 1300. According to an old tradition, felt-mak-ing was rediscovered by a wandering monk, St. Clement, who was promptly made the patron saint of the hat industry. It was told that he hit upon the discovery when, having put rabbit’s fur inside his sandals to ease his feet, he found to his surprise at the end of a journey that it had been transformed into •felt. Among the ancient Romans the head of a freed slave was shaved, and the man was allowed to wear a simple hat or cap, which thus became a symbol of freedom. In the Middle Ages opposing armies distinguished each other’s leaders by the colours of their headgear. In the thirteenth century Pope Innocent IV made the hat the distinctive symbol of the cardinalship. The French Revolution was a war between the red cap and the cocked hat.